My Gnocchi Came Naked to the Party: Nude Gnocchi a la Al Di La Trattoria

Welcome to the international gnocchi party! Hosted by Penny aka Jeroxie, my fellow guests and I have been tasked with bringing an umami-rich gnocchi dish to this virtual shindig. (There's a complete list of the other attendees, with links, and the bottom of this post.)  I took this challenge as the perfect opportunity to re-create a dish that has stuck with me for over 10 years: the malfatti, or nude gnocchi, as they are made at Al Di La Trattoria in my old digs of Brooklyn, NY.

When I first tasted these delectable pillows, I knew next to nothing about food or cooking.  I could tell something gastronomically special was going on, but I couldn't have pointed to the nutmeg, sage, Swiss chard, or brown butter as key players. I just knew I wanted more, more, more - but alas, I was broke and couldn't afford to eat out often enough to feed my malfatti addiction.  Plus I couldn't cook.

But since Anna Klinger, the Al Di La chef, generously shared her recipe with the New York Times some years back,  I can now have these amazing malfatti whenever I want.  They're sometimes called nude gnocchi because very little flour is used - just enough to hold all the ingredients together when you boil them. Klinger's recipe differs from traditional ones in that she uses Swiss chard rather than spinach, and while this does create more work for you, I think it's worth it in the long run - the chard gives a kind of subtle sweetness that somehow enriches the overall umami quality of the dish.

Malfatti a la Al Di La

adapted from the New York Times Magazine, November 2002

1 pound whole milk ricotta

kosher salt 

freshly ground black pepper

4 bunches Swiss chard (about 4 pounds)

8 ounces butter

1/4 cup AP flour, plus more for shaping

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 large egg yolks

1 large whole egg

1-2 handfuls fresh sage leaves

Parmesan cheese for serving

You'll have to plan ahead and let the ricotta drain in a cheesecloth overnight:

 

 Next, remove the stalks and any large ribs from the chard (but make sure to save the stalks, they're delicious roasted). It's a lot of chard, but by the time you're finished it will have shrunken to just a cup:

 Working in batches, blanch the chard in salted boiling water for 3 minutes and immediately immerse in ice cold water. Next, squeeze it out by hand and lay your chard out on a dishtowel:

 

Roll it up in the towel, and twist and squeeze. I mean really, really squeeze. You want to get all of the water out so that your malfatti aren't soggy. (And only use a dishtowel that you don't mind turning a permanent shade of light green.) This is a two-person job for sure, and Poppa Trix performed feats of wringing super-strength that day, let me tell you. Once you've got the water out, run the chard through a food processor and lay it back out on a dry towel:

  

Oh I'm sorry - you didn't think you were finished squeezing yet, did you? Wrap it up and do it again, and when you think there's no more water left in that chard, give it another squeeze for good measure.  You'll be glad you did, I promise! Besides, now it's time for the fun stuff.

Mix 1 1/2 cups of the ricotta with your chard:

 

Add to this 4 oz of melted butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1 heaping tsp salt,  1 heaping tsp freshly grated nutmeg and mix. Add the egg yolks and egg, season with ground pepper,  and mix again.

 

 

Now shape the mixture into little balls, about a tablespoon each, and place them gently on a floured cutting board or plate:

 

Now comes my favorite part: shaping the malfatti!  Simply plop each ball into a tall wine glass containing about a tbsp of flour, swirl until a quenelle (sort of an egg shape) forms. Remove, repeat. Fun!

 Now you can either freeze them or cook and eat them. We did both, and the frozen ones were just as flavorful as the fresh.  If you're cooking them, do so in a salted pot of boiling water for about 8 minutes (boil for 10 minutes if frozen). 

 

As for the sauce, it's a classic, simple brown butter and sage sauce. You know what to do: heat the remaining butter in a saute pan until it's brown and smells nutty, and then toss in the sage leaves for another 30 seconds. The smell is pure heaven:

Plate up the nude gnocchi with your sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan, and all that chard squeezing you did will suddenly be worth it:

And don't forget to check out these other gnocchi-licious dishes from my fellow gnocchi party revelers!

Our host, Penny aka Jeroxie, Addictive & Consuming

Divina, Sense & Serendipity  

Christine, Christine's Recipes 

Mardi, Eat, Live, Travel, Write 

Mellie, Tummy Rumbles

Conor, Hold the Beef

Shirley, Enriching Your Kid

Natasha, Five Star Foodie
Agnes, Off the Spork 
Ozoz, Kitchen Butterfly